SHC orders forest dept to reclaim 17,000 acres of land

SUKKUR: Justice Umar Sial and Justice Abdul Mobeen Lakho of the Sindh High Court (SHC) Circuit Bench Sukkur on Tuesday, while hearing a constitutional petition on retrieval of forest lands from land grabbers, expressed severe annoyance over the Irrigation Department for providing water to the land grabbed by illegal encroachers.

Sarfraz Nizamani, one of the land grabbers appeared before the court and submitted that he had vacated the forest land. However, Chief Conservator of Sindh Qazi Abdul Jabbar informed the court that Nizamani had only submitted a challan of 20 acres of forest land, whereas he has occupied 4,000 acres of forest land. The chief conservator told the SHC that now 17,000 acres of forest land remains occupied, while 250,000 acres have been vacated. The court ordered him to ensure recovery of the remaining forest land.

The bench ordered the Irrigation Department to submit a report of suspending irrigation water supply to the encroached land on every proceeding. The SSP Tando Allahyar, Chief Engineer and XEN Kotri Barrage and Sarfaraz Nizamani appeared before the court after their non-bailable warrants were issued bythe SHC bench due to their regular absence from the proceedings. The bench adjourned the case for next hearing on September 8.